I recently donated to the Red Cross through my employer, since they match employee donations dollar for dollar, and 50 cents on the dollar for retirees. I hear we gave $2.3M collectively, not including their matching, or the $1M they donated separately. But we’re huge, so that’s reasonable. (And I’m not mentioning them, since like so many other corporate employers, they don’t like employee blogging. Someday I’ll have to pay to retain my privacy for this domain, and cut down on spammers).
All posts by archangel
Netscape Radio Now AOL
I listen to a lot of net radio, since I’m on the computer a lot and a crave variety in my music. One of my main sources was Netscape Radio, which apparently is now AOL Radio. For a while now, I have experienced problems with my Radio@Netscape player, where it basically won’t start. When it was working, I saw occasional ads for unlimited listening at AOL Radio, and since they’re the same company (until Time Warner gives AOL the boot) I thought I’d check it out. Turns out AOL has the same stations and an interface that looks identical, but offers unlimited listening (Netscape cut you off after a couple hours). The new interface appears to be pure web-based and launches in a popup, unlike Netscape’s, which required a separate downloadable executable. Unfortunately for now, Firefox is not supported, but they promise it will be next month. So it’s time to dust off your IE.
I listen to it often due to the good selection of stations and the ability to rate songs. I have no idea how much my vote counts, but I like to feel listened to (hence this blog). In addition, they link the artist, song, and album to the AOL’s music page which licenses data from the All Music Guide, making it easy to learn about artists I’m not familiar with. My staples are Indie Rock Mix and Electronica, but other notable stations include Melancholia, for when your misery wants company; The WB Radio, the music of Smallville; Xtreme Alt Rock, hard but not boring; and a variety of single-artist stations for bands like The Ramones, The Doors, Yes, and others. Plus just about every other style of music you can think of, and several promotional stations for things like the Warp Tour and Live 8. Overall, a good one-stop music shop.
It Smells Like Sexual Harrassment
Please take the time to view this professionally produced video on sexual harassment. It’s an important topic that can affect us all, in ways we might not expect. Due to it’s frank and realistic depictions, it is not safe for workplace viewing.
DualDisc: Less for More?
I read an interesting article on the limitations of DualDisc, and the short of it is that both the CD side and the DVD side have less capacity than their standard counterparts. They have only 60 minutes of CD audio, and the DVD side has a single layer like the kind of recordables you can currently buy (DVD-5). In addition, Denon has said not to use them in their players until they can do thorough testing. I was considering picking up the Keane DualDisc, then I found out the limitations forced them to drop a track on the CD side! Luckily, they also offer a SACD, so I’ll be going with that. It’s a shame there’s so much marketing behind an inferior product, they seem much better off just including a bonus DVD with CDs to avoid the mess.
Diet Sodas That Don’t Taste Like Ass
For most of my life, I’ve hated diet sodas. Sacharine/Sweet & Low tasted especially horrible, but Aspartame/Nutrasweet didn’t taste great, either. Diet Coke and other colas taste pretty foul to me, and I love Coke. Friends have told me that all I have to do is choke down the stuff daily for 3 months, then you can stomach it no problem. I’ll pass. However, a few diet sodas have managed to taste really close to their non-diet counterparts:
- Diet Minute Maid Orange The first diet soda I really enjoyed, very close to the original, but almost impossible to find in can form these days. I occasionally see it in 2-liter bottles.
- Diet Sunkist A very good substitute for Minute Maid Orange.
- Diet Sprite, aka Sprite Zero Nearly identical to the original. They are getting on the low carb bandwagon, rebranding it as “Zero”. Great for me, as it’s carried in 7-11 now, and I’m occasionally seeing in vending machines.
- Diet Cherry 7-Up What I like to call a Shirley Temple in a can. Not very manly, but tastes great. Note that I have not included Diet (regular) 7-up, that misses the mark.
- Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi This is pretty groundbreaking for me. I’ve long been a champion of Coke in the cola wars, and I’ve outright hated all diet colas (only Diet Rite came anywhere close, and still not close enough for me). Regular Coke meant less sweet, more carbonation; Pepsi tastes too flat. But in diet sodas, less sweet tastes wrong. Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi still needs the carbonation of Coke, but flavor wise it’s an achievement. Almost no diet taste. Can’t say the same for Diet Cherry Coke, which still has a ways to go. As for carbonation, if you’re just drinking a can, there isn’t much time for it to get any flatter. Worth it just for the caffeine, which none of the other sodas in the list have.
- Coca-Cola C2 This is great while it lasts. I think this tastes very close to regular Coke, and makes an excellent substitute. Unfortunately, it looks like both this and Pepsi Edge (never tried it) have lost millions for their companies. The problem is, they wanted to capitalize on the various low carb diets, which prescribe zero sugars, not just lower carbohydrates. Half isn’t close to zero. Still at the supermarket, but my local vending machine has been sold out of it for some time, and it doesn’t seem to be getting replenished.
- Coke Zero and Cherry Coke Zero Nowadays, I probably drink more Cherry Coke Zero than anything else. There is just something about cherry that masks/softens the aftertaste of artificial sweeteners. Coke Zero isn’t bad, and it’s finally arrived in a few soda fountains, most notably movie theaters.
Now, if we could just get more of these into vending machines, instead of the foul Diet Vanilla/Lemon/Lime Coke/Pepsi/Dr. Pepper permutations that currently fill them.
Tossing My Red Hat into the Sun
Over the past couple months, I decided to migrate this server from Red Hat 9 to Solaris 10. What follows is the logic and history behind that decision, which is still in progress. This is the first in a series of articles about moving from Linux to Solaris x86.
Continue reading Tossing My Red Hat into the Sun
And We’re Back!
So there’s been a paucity of posts since my whirlwind romance with World of Warcraft. Alas, the infatuation has faded. I still play, and plan to for some time, but its hold over me has been broken. I think I first realized this the weekend I spent more time reading about J2EE than playing. There have been other things on the plate, and I wasn’t sure how to get back into this. Mind you, this is still a group blog, nobody else was prevented from writing here. Of course, nobody’s prevented from reading, either, but that doesn’t stop them. (I am a master of circular logic).
Anyway, Blizzard released a game patch, which means my big set of community-created addons (Cosmos) has probably been broken, and it will take a couple days to fix it. Luckily, my characters will be gaining rest bonus (extra xp for time spent away from the game, basically rewarding you for not using their servers while still paying them money). So no big loss, and I’ll again be suckling at the teat of mother Blizzard in a few days time. ‘Til then, I write!
Starbucks in Barstow
The Starbucks in Barstow is off the Lenwood exit:
2843 Lenwood Blvd.
Ste. D
Barstow, California 923119587
(760) 253-4474
It has the strangest but most logical closing times:
Friday – 1:30am
Sat – 10:30pm
Sun – 11:30pm
Clearly, this is critical info for all members of The Crack Team.
Best Craps in Vegas
I just came back from Vegas where I found a new favorite place to play craps: Casino Royale. It’s situated between The Venetian and Harrah’s, and is well known for having the best odds on the strip. This is certainly true for for their craps game. We’re talking 100x odds and $2 minimums! This allows you to play very close to an even money game. I used the 5-count from the Frank Scoblete craps books, putting come bets after the 2-, 3-, and 4-counts, so I was up on 3 numbers by the 5-count, when I placed my odds bets: $20 on the 6 and 8, $10 on the other point numbers. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to play as long as I wanted. I’ve found craps isn’t a game for those pressed for time.
I should also point out that it’s clean and much more pleasant than the downtown casinos; they have lower minimums, but aren’t worth the cab fare.
I also wanted to try $2-$4 poker, but as I’m allergic to smoke, that won’t happen until they open a non-smoking poker room. I doubt that will happen anytime soon.
Do Not Call and Cell Phones
It seems there’s an email going around, warning people about a cell phone directory for telemarketers. I’ve even heard a rumor at work that Congress is going to pass a bill allowing telemarketers to call cell phones. Both appear to be bogus, more or less.
It’s true that Verizon is making a cell phone directory, for use only by their customers, listing only those who have given their express permission. Other mobile phone companies have no plans for a directory. As for Congress, they know that stopping telemarketers is a big hit with voters. Why would they undo the law stopping cell phone telemarketing, which exists because you pay per-minute charges on incoming calls? Doesn’t make sense.
The half-truth is that the National Do Not Call Registry does accept mobile phone numbers, and always has. So if you’re paranoid, it won’t hurt to register your mobile number, too.